Getting Started – Marketing Cloud

In this Quick Tour, we will briefly show you how to use the Bluedot Point SDK and highlight some of its most important features. Because we know your time is gold, this Quick Tour is very concise and it is meant for those who want to evaluate Bluedot Point SDK, whether you are new to Location-based Mobile Marketing technologies, or a pro in a hurry. It should only take about 5 minutes to walk through. For more detailed information on each topic please refer to Bluedot Developer Documentation.

What is the Bluedot Point SDK?

The Bluedot Point SDK is a location technology which is 20 times more precise than any other location services that allows you to deliver personalized mobile action content, including push messages and notifications, payment prompts, audio and videos for individuals or groups based on any condition with high accuracy and minimal battery drain. The Point SDK efficiently manages your user’s battery power for optimal performance.

Do I need an App?

Yes, the Bluedot Point SDK needs to be integrated into your mobile app. Bluedot Point SDK is available for Android and iOS and is designed for easy integration, optimal battery performance, and scale.

It efficiently handles extreme volumes of locations, works passively in the background and even triggers check-ins when there’s no data connection. Once you have downloaded and set up Bluedot Point SDK you can start configuring Geofences, GEOLINE™, Beacons, Actions and Conditions to deliver location-based and personalized content.

Salesforce Integration

Customers can now use Bluedot Location Marketing App from the Salesforce AppExchange to power personalized customer journeys at scale using our patented Geofencing and GEOLINE™ technology. The Bluedot SDK integration wrapper for Salesforce Marketing Cloud enables mobile apps to take advantage of the power of the Marketing Cloud and the superior accuracy of Geofence, GEOLINE™ and the BLE Beacon triggering capabilities of the Bluedot SDKs.

Web Interface

The Bluedot Web Interface is a web-based user interface to configure location-related rules (including Geofences, GEOLINE™, Beacons, Actions, and Conditions) for apps powered by the Bluedot Point SDK. The Bluedot Point SDK connects to our backend mobile APIs to download preconfigured rules that are specific to the mobile app user’s location; the Point SDK then executes the rules within the app in both the foreground and background modes of a mobile device. All communication to and from the Web Interface is secured using SSL certificates; this is augmented by strong encryption and compression techniques on the client and server sides.

Creating a new Zone and Geofences

Selecting Create New Zone in the Dashboard will redirect users to the map interface (powered by Google Maps).

Users can use the tools provided in the map interface to:

draw circular, rectangular and/or polygonal Geofences

draw single or multi-sided GEOLINE™

add beacons using the Beacon icon

A Zone can consist of one or more intersecting or non-intersecting Geofences, GEOLINE™ and/or Beacons. Users’ devices will respond to Zones according to the Actions and Conditions that are set for a particular Zone. The shape and distribution of Geofences and GEOLINE™ should suit the commercial and natural environment they relate to.

Setting a Custom Action

By default, a Custom Action is created for each Zone created.

What is a Custom Action?
A Custom Action can deliver a call back to the mobile app to allow an action to be executed on the device. You can add additional data to the Custom Action, allowing you to tag details about the location, the business, target customers and the campaign to add valuable context. This helps you easily analyze the success of campaigns and deliver ROI figures to your clients.

Zero, one or multiple Conditions can be configured for a Custom Action to determine when the Action should be initiated in a device that passes through a Zone.

To set a Condition, select the Custom Action in the slider menu and select the New Condition button, which will reveal a New Condition drop down menu. One or more Conditions can be selected from the following pre-built conditions.

Percentage Crossed/Sequential

Date Range

Time Active

Bearing

Speed

Saving a Zone
To save a Zone click on the Save Zone button. A Zone Settings pop-up will appear.

Add a check-out enabled Zone to your account

Point SDK can optionally recognize when a device leaves a Zone, known as a check-out.

This enriches the analytics you will generate from Bluedot Location Marketing by recording a dwell time against check-ins, which is the approximate number of minutes a device spent at a location.

The check-out feature also allows your app to be notified in real-time at the point when a device ‘checks out’ of a Zone it has previously checked-in to.

For Geofences, check-out occurs as soon as the Point SDK can confidently assert that the device is outside of a checked in Geofence area. The exact distance of travel is dependent on environmental conditions and the opportunity for battery conservation.

For Beacons, check-out occurs when the device leaves the Beacon’s full range and it is no longer detectable. The exact range for check-out from a Beacon is highly dependent on the Beacon’s own hardware configuration, as check-out will be triggered once the user’s device is out of range of the Beacon. This is irrespective of any closer proximity that may have been chosen for checking in when setting up the Zone.

To enable a Check-out Zone, check the Enable Check-out checkbox in the Zone Settings pop-up (shown in the above diagram).

Once a Zone is saved, a new draft Journey will automatically be created in Journey Builder with the suffix check-in and if check-out was enabled for the Zone then another draft Journey with the suffix check-out is created. Select Journey Builder from the top navigation bar.

The next step is to start creating the Journey for the end user, wherein you can set up the messages and notifications you would like to send to end-user’s device. Please refer to Check-in Entry Event documentation.

This was just a quick tour, showcasing some basic usage of Bluedot Point SDK technology. For more details please explore the rest of the documentation!